An Uzbek refugee will spend 25 years in jail and afterwards be deported for planning an attack on a U.S. military academy, a U.S. judge ruled on January 7.
“He intended to carry out jihad on the United States,” U.S. District Court Judge Edward J. Lodge said in sentencing Fazliddin Kurbanov. “He intended to explode a bomb in the U.S. to send a message, much like that delivered in the [September 11, 2001] attacks.”
The Russian-speaking Kurbanov, a truck driver who fled Uzbekistan in 2009, protested that "I'm not a terrorist...I’ve never caused any harm to anyone. And I have no intent to do that, especially not to Americans.”
Prosecutors said Kurbanov is a jihadist who communicated with a terrorist organization, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, stockpiled bomb-making equipment, and planned to attack U.S. military targets, in particular the West Point Military Academy in New York.